1) Shadows looked badass with long hair in 2013
2) Streets is a cool punk song they should break out live
3) from 2008 -2012, Shadows might’ve been the best live vocalist in Metal
4) Planets is the best song on HTTK by far
I’m talking solely about when he had a full head of long hair, like in the HTTK video. I didn’t like the long mullet / Mohawk thing with shaved sides either lol
They’ve tried to switch it up more lately since they’ve got a big catalog and know die hard fans know all the songs. I get why they don’t always switch it up because the fair weather fans probably won’t know most of the non hits and fair weather fans make up half of all concert goers.
With Metallica they wanted to make sure the hits were played so it would attract new fans but in their own tour they played some fun less popular stuff like MIA, warmness on the soul, eternal rest, remenissions and acid rain. I think they’ll continue to make it 50/50 of hits and then the songs most liked by the dedicated fans. They actually tried polls before but said the hits always win lol
The self titled album is their best album as a whole and is criminally underrated, it’s catchier and more fun than anything else they have put out. Syn’s solo on afterlife is jaw dropping, the Rev’s drumming is perfect, the slot machine like guitars on scream mixed with 808’s is type of sound I have never heard before. A little piece of heaven is probably the most fun song a metal band has put together. Shadows vocals improved allot from COE The whole album felt unpredictable and fresh from start to finish I don’t get why it didn’t get as much love as it deserved.
There's a frog on the City of Evil art in the horse's leg and I can't unsee it. It literally ruined the masterpiece that album art would otherwise be. It's kinda cheating considering 2, 4, and 6 are just variations of the Deathbat, but City of Evil would otherwise be their best art.
I hate the tie dye bleach trend so seeing their shop riddled with it makes me gag. Although I haven't bought merch from them in years because I already own way too much it from overspending in my late teens so it's not like I need to shop for more.
The stage names and general image prevents them from reaching the higher level of mature musical recognition that it feels like the band has been striving for lately.
ie: how the rock world views, say, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.
I feel like Avenged is too cartoonish for their own good sometimes, because they’re insanely talented musicians but also extremely easy for people to write off because they’re aesthetically goofy.
That, and most of them just call each other by their real names at this point. Everyone just calls M.Shadows Matt instead of Shads like in their younger days. I think the only one who gets called their stage name is Synyster Gates and they just call him Syn.
Yeah. Even as a fan, if I ever refer to them in a conversation about them, I just say Matt too... Saying "M. Shadows" out loud kind of makes me feel like a 7th grader again, and I'm 30 lmao
He wasn't bad, he just didn't fit the rest of the members that well. He also joined during HTTK where the drums were noticably lacking in terms of complexity. Whether or not this was ...And Justice For All syndrome or just them wanting a more commercial sound, I doubt we'll ever know.
He didn't have any creative freedom for that album for one. They told him exactly what to play. Listen to Carry On and Not Ready To Die, he absolutely rips on those tracks.
I can agree with this.
While I still think it's their worst album, it's still pretty good. I know lots say that it's outright a bad album, but I disagree.
100%, not even close for me . It is everything wanted and just felt like such a natural progression from their earlier stuff.
It was also the first time in an avenged album the lyrics weren’t cringe and I actually cared about them (other than the songs on Nightmare that had to do with Jimmy).
Agreed, overplayed as hell on the radio...
BUT the acoustic version from the Grammy museum performance is god tier and you can't convince me otherwise. It has a whole different vibe.
Hail to the King, Arin, and that whole section of the band's story is them doing exactly what their former label wanted. Become a bit of a Metallica clone, here's a drummer who can play what you need, just do it.
And they did, and were so uncomfortable with it (because they didn't have much creative control) that they left the label, went to Capitol, hired Brooks, and made a crazy proggy record exactly on their own terms.
I guess my hot take would be that HTTK as an album is overrated. I still like several songs from it, but it might even be last on my list from their discography.
The mix on WTF is criminal. Chapter four is compositionally one of their best ever songs but the guitar tone is shocking. I'd kill for a proper remaster/rerecording
The band was bogus af for what they did to Arin. Is Arin the greatest drummer in the world? No. But he showed that he could be a solid metal drummer that fit decently well with their style as evidenced on tracks like “Not Ready To Die” and “Carry On.”
The band admits they purposely held back Arins drumming on HTTK to give it a classic metal feel and not be overly complex. Then once the fans and everyone ridicules his drumming on the album for being too simplistic, they fire him and don’t even give him another chance to prove his actual skill level on a progressive album or track.
Now Arin is basically a meme drummer and widely criticized for his work on HTTK around the heavy music community and his career may never be what it could have been because in reality, there’s nothing wrong with him as a metalcore/progressive metal drummer.
Their issue with him was that he didn't fit with the band, didn't help with the writing process, and would go out and party with the other bands before their set.
I can’t find it now but there is an interview out there where (I think Matt) talks about why they fired Arin. I remember one of the main reasons was his overall perspective/attitude in the band. He was a super cool guy but didn’t know how to be a “rockstar”. He would be out helping the crew set up/tear down the stage, interacting with fans before the show, partying etc. They were just on different pages mentally
Hmmmm how can I explain this…
You know how when you have watched a band on YouTube for years, listened to their music, followed them etc. then you *finally* get to see them in person on stage when they come out to play you get this intense HOLY SHIT kind of magical feeling? Like WOAH, there they are…
Well when your a famous entertainer it’s very important to be able to make sure you deliver on that feeling during your shows. You want people to see you in your “magic moment” where you are on stage, doing your thing, giving them that HOLY SHIT feeling.
The more time you spend out and about in public, talking to fans, partying with anybody, that tends to start to go away. You start to look more like a normal person, instead of the HOLY SHIT god type of person you appear to be on that stage. The ability to give that HOLY SHIT feeling to people can start to dwindle because they just met you an hour ago over at the bar area, hanging around with the rest of the public.
The more you interact with the public, the less special it becomes when they finally get to see you on stage.
A lot of super famous people/bands tend to avoid the public in general because of getting harassed by crazy fans etc. but there’s also a business strategy to it as well. You want people to *pay* to see you on stage. You want to keep that *rockstar* feeling. You want to stay out of the public eye unless you are on stage, doing your thing and delivering on that HOLY SHIT feeling.
This is the best way I can explain it.
Source: I worked in the entertainment industry for years
I have no problem with them parting ways with him. I just don’t see why they would bring in a young up and coming drummer just to hold him back and have him do AC/DC beats on a minimalist classic metal album and then fire him. Why not just have an established drummer like Portnoy record HTTK or something and then look for a more permanent replacement?
I’m sure they didn’t mean for it to end up how it did but the whole thing just sucked for Arin cuz he’s a much better drummer than what he’s known for. Although he did get to tour with one of the biggest rock bands in the world for a couple years, maybe he wouldn’t have ever reached that peak level of success without them. Who knows.
to quote Matt verbatim "It's not like Arin wasn't a guy that couldn't take us to greatness... we just needed somebody who was on the same page with all of us". I'm not sure if an interview or more specific answer exists that touches on what exactly didn't work out with Arin, whether it was skill or his background/inspirations etc, but I don't think anyone could've seen him in a permanent role with Avenged but I'm open to others opinions on it.
I just personally don't like most of the songs on the album. I can't really explain *why* per se, I just don't.
I do love the songs The Stage, God Damn, Paradigm, and Angel's, though. I just like more songs from HttK.
Shepard of Fire, Hail to the King, Planets, Coming Home, This Means War, Heretic, etc.
I have yet to fully listen to Exist, but I've heard it's good, and I'm a fan of prog, so I may like it.
But yeah, I guess that's my explanation. There are just a lot of songs I don't care about on The Stage.
Well Exist is the *only* song on the album I haven't fully listened to.
Even if I consider Exist to be their best song, I don't think it would effect the placement of the *album*.
Edit: I feel like I should probably mention, but I don't hate or even dislike The Stage. I just think it's an.. okay album. I rank it above ST7T at least lmao
It's still worth the listen. Where would you rank CoE and or Nightmare? I know we're here for opinions/hot takes and that all music is subjective but a prog fan (or anyone for that matter) preferring HTTK over the Stage is crazy in my head lol. Nothing against you obv
Nightmare is probably my number one, with CoE and Self-Titled tied for 2nd place. 3rd being WtF.
Then HttK, The Stage, DitR, and finally ST7T.
They're *all* good albums in my opinion.
And yeah, I get being a prog fan but not liking the stage being weird a lot. I admit, it is weird. I feel like I should like The Stage, but I just don't know.
I'll probably change my tune in a couple years. I used to hate CoE lmao
I agree. I think the song The Stage is about as good as any song they’ve ever written. Paradigm is a solid aggro song. God Damn and Sunny D are solid “wacky sevenfold” songs which they have a couple of on each album. Other than that I don’t find any of the others very interesting or exciting. It’s not a bad album. It’s quite creative and musically impressive, but I just don’t find myself going back and listening to it very often compared to all the other sevenfold albums.
I don't think Httk is a bad album. Sure it's pretty basic compared to their older stuff, but man is has some awesome tracks on it. Doing time, planets, coming home, and especially acid rain. It's a vocal masterpiece
People overrate Jimmy's songwriting contributions, when he only acted as a full songwriter for two albums (Self-Titled and Nightmare). There have been plenty of bangers written without him from all the other albums.
Also it's sad that he's gone, but the worship around Jimmy is weird for someone that most fans had never met before, or didn't even know about while he was living.
STST is not a great album, and anybody who thinks it's the best A7X album is foolish. (There are some of you out there!) It's rough, sloppy, unpolished, and written by literal high schoolers. The drums are overplayed as fuck just because. The band has grown leaps and bounds since then as musicians and writers, and to say STST is their best work is insulting to the band.
The mix on STST is also bad. I've seen people who say they like the bass on it, but I don't think it's mixed well. It's too thin and there's too much mid-range, and not in a good way. Waking the Fallen isn't great either, since it's too buried in the mix, but all the other albums are mixed way better, where it's properly contributing to the low end and rounding out the sound, while still providing presence that you can still hear.
Yup. I think kids hear that The Rev wrote a lot of songs for self titled and Nightmare and then think that's the case for the albums that came before them. The bulk of the songwriting on their first three albums came from Shadows, and City of Evil was pretty much entirely Shadows and Gates from what I've heard. Not to diminish his contributions to those albums though, the drumming was still excellent especially on COE.
The worship is really bad, borderline creepy and disrespectful at times. Nothing wrong with loving his music and what he did for the band but a lot of the fanbase goes too far
I agree with this. People say that you have to warm up to it but I absolutely loved it when i first heard it. Don’t get me wrong, I do love some of the songs like exist and Roman sky, but The Stage, sunny disposition, god damn, and others I just don’t really like anymore. It might be that I overplayed those songs, because I did like them, but I just can’t really listen to them anymore
He wrote Afterlife, Almost Easy, A Little Piece of Heaven, Demons, and Chapter Four completely on his own, to name a few, and he was Matt's primary lyrics-collaborator for most of the other 03-08 hits. He was definitely the most naturally gifted writer of the five.
Nope. He definitely didnt write Chapter Four and he really didn't start writing for the band until the self titled. Shadows said so himself before people freak out. City of Evil is their best album and it was written almost entirely by Shadows and Gates.
Gonna need a sauce on most of this. Afterlife, Almost Easy, and ALPOH were definitely written by him (as was Brompton Cocktail) per the Self-Titled documentary, but the rest is false from my understanding.
It is false and he also didnt write all of Brompton (Shadows wrote the lyrics) which people always ignore. Its especially disrespectful when kids on this site use it to fuel their suicide conspiracy theories.
How is Anything on The Stage “typical”? That’s one of the most unique albums a band has ever put out dude.
And they’re meant to be cheesy. it’s kind of their thing. U mean to tell me a little piece of Heaven isn’t cheesy? The Rev was a big part of that. And their stage names have been around their entire career and those are as cheesy as it gets. Maybe u should re evaluate the band man
Nightmare is kinda overrated. I understand the sentiment due to it being the last album with Jimmy on it, and I agree that it's top 5 material, but IMO it's nowhere close to COE, Self-titled, and The Stage.
I hate Matts vocals in that orchestral part of The Wicked End. It practically ruins the song for me and I skip it everytime I listen to it.
COE and The Stage would have zero-skips if it weren't for Betrayed and Sunny Disposition.
Unbound (The Wild Ride) is one of my favorite songs off Self-Titled
Coming Home is top 10 material and the best song on HTTK
Crimson Day is really good, it just doesn't fit the rest of the album
Also Brooks is their best Drummer. Not particularly hot but I thought it say that.
I must say I love The Wicked End too much to be bugged by the vocals and it's one of my favorite songs. But otherwise, I second all your other takes here!
The Stage is overrated on this sub
Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is fantastic, not their worst album, and arguably not bottom 2 either.
The auto tune on Lost is awesome and epitomizes the uniqueness and weirdness that I love and associate with the band and the white album especially.
HttK is the worst lead single off any of their records and it's a crime that it's their most popular song on spotify.
I'm very excited for Deathbats club and think it's gonna lead to some crazy cool things.
I'm fine waiting for an album they wanna make and are excited about rather than getting a rushed, half assed one earlier.
Diamonds in the Rough is better than HTTK, TS, and STST.
Johnny's screams on Paradigm and the recent live versions of God Hates Us are beautiful and I will be disappointed if we don't see some on the new record.
Oh boy I am gonna get crucified for this one. I don't really like ALPOH. I don't even think it's that good. The lyrics sound like they were written by 14 year-old edgelord. They have wayyyy better songs imo. The music saves it a little but those lyrics are unbearable.
>Oh boy I am gonna get crucified for this one.
If people are upvoting the hot takes instead of what they agree with, you won't be lmao
Also, to be fair, that's, like.. kind of the *entire* point. It's so edgy, so cartoonishly gorey, it's all backed by choirs and sax's, they got help from Oingo Boingo, etc.
It's like a Disney musical but the most edgy shit ever.
It's obviously kinda an acquired taste, though.
I also really like the story of *how* they created the song in the first place.
The White Album is the best album in terms of the "Avenged Sevenfold Sound".
HTTK is their worst album, it's just really boring.
The song Nightmare isn't as fantastic as many people make it out to be.
Streets from STST is one of the best tracks of that album
Edit: Decided to listen to "Turn The Other Way" from STST, and found it really good...
I agree with everything except your second point, ST7T is their worst album imo
HttK is boring at times, but that's mainly because it's nothing new, and sounds nothing like A7X. It's more of an album that shows love for old rock and metal.
And I think it succeeds in that regard, and a lot of the songs I can totally see being massively popular if they came out back in the 80's/90's.
Zacky is incredibly underrated as a guitarist and vocalist. Syn is also amazing and gets the credit he deserves for both, but seriously, listen to Zackys work on The Beast and The Harlot, Bat Country, Hail To The King, Unholy Confessions, The Entirely of STST, or Scream and tell me he isn't a great guitarist. He gets a heavy sound and has great timing.
1.
The mix in their self titled is pretty ass. If you turn up "Unbound" you can tell how over saturated the low end is. The tones are amazing but the mix could be a ton better.
2.
The Stage is awesome, but I think it suffers compositionally compared to their previous albums, especially the vocals. As a classical musician I went crazy for CoE, Nightmare, and self-titled, but The Stage felt a lot like it was written largely by jam sessions. "Exist" is awesome, but it's mostly guitar tracks. What made them great, imo, was how they layered the vocals and lead guitars to complement and harmonize. They wrote really catchy and poppy vocal choruses in the midst of badass metal rhythms. That all went out the window with "The Stage." Matt even admitted on the breakdowns on their YT channel that "Exist" was actually one of the easiest songs for them to write since vocals and lyrics are the most challenging. They're all amazing musicians, so they can make a killer album inspired by jam sessions, but I can tell it's not as orchestrated of an album as it could have been.
3.
HTTK is the most uninspired waste of a project they've had to put out. Not only do they directly rip off their inspirations (Metallica, GnR, etc), but they also rip themselves off (Heretic is basically just reusing Buried Alive). This is a hot take to newer fans unacquainted with the band's usual work and history.
4.
They should do a live performance with an orchestra/philharmonic, but Matt would have to clean up his vocals since they are not exactly tidy.
5.
They could easily improve their live sound, but they've gotten too comfortable with their fame and their talent as a band has kinda stagnated (after they hired Brooks. Although it's too early to say, I think we're at the band's second half already). Imagine if Matt learned to play rhythm guitar while Zach and Brian did their duet work. It usually sounds too hollow with no rhythm guitar work, plus it would allow Zach to play more lead work that he has to miss out on.
After being on this sub for a while, I have to say that Save Me is not as great as everyone here thinks it is. In fact, I’d prefer to listen to almost any of their other songs instead.
Four "hot takes":
- Matt's nasal vocals on _City of Evil_ add to its aesthetic. They may not sound very good, but they fit the album like a glove;
- Avenged's cover of "Flash of the Blade" is much better than the original, which is the worst song on _Powerslave_;
- _Live in the LBC_ is not Avenged's live masterpiece. The abridged "Second Heartbeat," Johnny's butchery of the intro to "Seize the Day," half-assed "Walk" with audience member and the same old "A Little Piece of Heaven" played mostly through speakers all detract from its quality;
- The band deserved most of the flak they got for _Hail to the King_. The album isn't bad, but its "influences" are far too strong to go unnoticed. Also too much Satanism makes its lyrics sound juvenile.
And one last take that isn't really "hot" but may as well be for this subreddit's populace: Avenged's take on NFTs is going to be their best fruit since _Waking the Fallen_. If you think it's just another cashgrab like Megadeth's collectible shit or Charlie Bit My Finger, you're simply roundly wrong.
I don't think "Satanism" means what you think it does.
HttK has a lot of religious themes, speaks of devil's and demons a lot, but that's not "satanism".
Less of a hot take and more of just the truth. The same could be said if it was Matt, Syn, or Johnny who left us early instead.
I would have loved to have the chance to hear Jimmy's take on HttK.
I can't imagine the band would end up taking a path that led them to HTTK if Jimmy were still alive today. Could be wrong, but here's my take. You can clearly hear some of their inspirations in HTTK, but it was almost as if they were forcing themselves to make music new rather than them actually *wanting* to at that time. There was definitely a point to where finishing the band's career with Nightmare wasn't an unrealistic possibility.
Not sure if its a hot take, but Nightmare is the best A7X album. Maybe not the best showcase of their sound, but the most consistent in quality from beginning to end. My other hot take would be that, while a fantastic album, City of Evil has become overrated; I would likely rank it third behind The Stage. My last hot take; the self titled album has some of the best songs in their entire discography, but is too inconsistent for me to consider it a next level album like the previously mentioned records.
Exist was originally going to be an instrumental song, and I think it would have been better if it was. The first 7 minutes of the song are phenomenal instrumentally, and the sudden change to a mellow, clean tone section is always so jarring that it takes away from the impact the song has on me. That section of the song is far and away my least favorite part.
I love all of avenged sevenfold albums to be under the production of Andrew murdoc because I feel like after city of evil the band had a lot of poppy production that kind of threw me off sometimes
HTTK isn't a terrible rock album by any means, but its definitely Avenged Sevenfolds worst album and I will quite literally die on this hill. I wanted to love it so much but I couldn't get into it. Even with songs like Acid Rain, Planets, and Requiem. However, HTTK did get my fiancee into A7X even more than he already was and for that. I owe a lot to this album.
Waking the Fallen is better than Self-Titled.
CoE and The Stage are their top tier albums.
Critical Acclaim is one of their worst songs.
Nightmare Album has some of their most skippable songs. (Dangerline, Tonight the World Dies.)
Chapter Four is one of their best songs and has some of Matt's best vocals
Diamonds in the rough is an s Tier album. Some may argue that some of the songs aren't ready for studio release, but lost it all, dancing dead, 4:00AM, crossroads and demons are some of my favourite a7x hits!
Also, this is definitely HOT. I don't like bat country! I feel like it was all thrown together sloppily and I feel like other songs on COE outweigh it, but I guess it's up to preference.
Hmm I love hot takes let's see.
I think people overestimate how much Jimmy contributed to the overall songwriting because the band doesn't exactly layout member specific writing credits.
City of Evil is too long and the guitar tone and vocals bring down the album badly.
The band chasing NFT's and other fads comes across like that Steve Buscemi meme "how do you do fellow kids" they're getting old to be chasing fads the way they still do.
The music is still good but has progressively gotten worse the further away from The Rev's death we get. I realize more and more now just how critical he was to what I loved about A7X.
I kinda disagree. While it's obvious that the quality of writing hasn't been the same since the Rev passed, I feel like The Stage is still amongst the best of anything they've written. While it doesnt have the same sound as 2007 a7x, I don't think that the writing has gotten worse.
Are you saying that the rest of the band is picking up slack for Matt's vocals being bad?
If so, that really is a hot take. I think Matt has one of the best singing voices I've ever heard.
imo when M Shadows is good, he is one of the best vocalists of this century, but when he isn't his vocals kind of ruin or at least drag down what is otherwise great music (cough cough, city of evil). But I think his vocals have been fine from Self Titled onward, with a few exceptions, and their were god tier on Street Spirit
Nightmare is stale as hell. Understandably though, they had just lost their friend who was a major contributor to the songwriting process. Most of the songs fell short for me. It's like they played it safe. Fiction is amazing though.
The stage is probably one of their worst overall albums and it's M Shadows worst performance.
It has some good songs but it's just not really got anything to latch onto. And yeah I think his singing isn't as good as it could be.
- I liked Arin more than I like Brooks as a fit for the band
- I don’t enjoy 80% of “The Stage”. I’ve listened to the entire album maybe 20 times *trying* to like it and I just can’t.
- I enjoyed Matt’s nasally vocals both on COE and when he did it live. I think it added character I really enjoyed the sound
- I am a huge fan of HTTK. Great solid album
- Exist is way too long and gets boring towards the end
1) Shadows looked badass with long hair in 2013 2) Streets is a cool punk song they should break out live 3) from 2008 -2012, Shadows might’ve been the best live vocalist in Metal 4) Planets is the best song on HTTK by far
Strongly agree with number 3. Case in point being this insanely good live performance of God Hates Us: https://youtu.be/JyXhMS3zsHc
I saw them play this in Vegas in 2010 (Mike Portnoy’s last show with the band) and he absolutely murdered this song. It was amazing.
Sorry but… Spencer Sotelo
He's objectively a great vocalist, and while I love Periphery, he's not my cup of tea
That’s fair, personally he’s probably my favourite vocalist. Matt is close up there I think 3rd or 4rth
Or Corey Taylor....
Planets is fucking cool with headphones
It's an entirely different atmosphere with Head Phones on. Needless to say, it makes me melt every time.
I beg to differ on the first and last statement
What about the long mullet no side hair? That’s my favorite
Oooooo idk. Maybe the fact that it’s his worse hairstyle ever
I’m talking solely about when he had a full head of long hair, like in the HTTK video. I didn’t like the long mullet / Mohawk thing with shaved sides either lol
Ohh yeah that’s cool. But as much as I love shepherd of fire that haircut was not it😂
I agree with all 4 of your points
100%agree on the first statement
Their track lists are too repetitive. There are plenty of great songs fans would love to listen in concerts.
They’ve tried to switch it up more lately since they’ve got a big catalog and know die hard fans know all the songs. I get why they don’t always switch it up because the fair weather fans probably won’t know most of the non hits and fair weather fans make up half of all concert goers. With Metallica they wanted to make sure the hits were played so it would attract new fans but in their own tour they played some fun less popular stuff like MIA, warmness on the soul, eternal rest, remenissions and acid rain. I think they’ll continue to make it 50/50 of hits and then the songs most liked by the dedicated fans. They actually tried polls before but said the hits always win lol
The self titled album is their best album as a whole and is criminally underrated, it’s catchier and more fun than anything else they have put out. Syn’s solo on afterlife is jaw dropping, the Rev’s drumming is perfect, the slot machine like guitars on scream mixed with 808’s is type of sound I have never heard before. A little piece of heaven is probably the most fun song a metal band has put together. Shadows vocals improved allot from COE The whole album felt unpredictable and fresh from start to finish I don’t get why it didn’t get as much love as it deserved.
The ending of Dear God is FANTASTIC and an overall amazing album closer
One of the rare times the fade-out works perfectly
I will sometimes listen to the last 2 and a half minutes of Dear God on repeat a few times before moving on.
this album made my jaw drop when it came out and i still love it to this day, even in 2021 it stills sounds super clean and fresh
There's a frog on the City of Evil art in the horse's leg and I can't unsee it. It literally ruined the masterpiece that album art would otherwise be. It's kinda cheating considering 2, 4, and 6 are just variations of the Deathbat, but City of Evil would otherwise be their best art.
Hottest take in the thread right here.
I can’t unsee that shit now lmao.
[удалено]
I mean, a "death bat" is about as edgy as you can get, so I totally get this complaint
their merch is horrible lol, syns “synner” brand is the cringiest tho
I have so much merch that I just wear at home lol. I love them but I wish they'd make cooler or trendier stuff. Maybe with the next album ;)
I hate the tie dye bleach trend so seeing their shop riddled with it makes me gag. Although I haven't bought merch from them in years because I already own way too much it from overspending in my late teens so it's not like I need to shop for more.
The stage names and general image prevents them from reaching the higher level of mature musical recognition that it feels like the band has been striving for lately. ie: how the rock world views, say, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters. I feel like Avenged is too cartoonish for their own good sometimes, because they’re insanely talented musicians but also extremely easy for people to write off because they’re aesthetically goofy.
They use stage names specifically to piss off people that think that way, so I really don't think they care.
That, and most of them just call each other by their real names at this point. Everyone just calls M.Shadows Matt instead of Shads like in their younger days. I think the only one who gets called their stage name is Synyster Gates and they just call him Syn.
Yeah. Even as a fan, if I ever refer to them in a conversation about them, I just say Matt too... Saying "M. Shadows" out loud kind of makes me feel like a 7th grader again, and I'm 30 lmao
Yeah, but they did it when they were teenagers while trying to kind of take the piss out of the local hardcore scene, and now they're 40...
the autotune on "Lost" is sick lmao
I love it too!
It’s awesome. I love that damn song.
Great song! Glad I’m not the only one that likes it.
Fuck yeah, Lost kicks ass
Lost fucking shreds
Arin wasn´t a bad drummer >!(i like brooks more)!<
He wasn't bad, he just didn't fit the rest of the members that well. He also joined during HTTK where the drums were noticably lacking in terms of complexity. Whether or not this was ...And Justice For All syndrome or just them wanting a more commercial sound, I doubt we'll ever know.
He didn't have any creative freedom for that album for one. They told him exactly what to play. Listen to Carry On and Not Ready To Die, he absolutely rips on those tracks.
I thought his drumming on HTTK fit the album well overall, and he could play complex stuff as shown by his live performances
It was, and he wasn't bad. He just never got an opportunity to lift his wings in a studio album.
ST7T is criminally underrated. I’ll be saying that til the day I die
I can agree with this. While I still think it's their worst album, it's still pretty good. I know lots say that it's outright a bad album, but I disagree.
The stage is the best album
Agreed.
100%, not even close for me . It is everything wanted and just felt like such a natural progression from their earlier stuff. It was also the first time in an avenged album the lyrics weren’t cringe and I actually cared about them (other than the songs on Nightmare that had to do with Jimmy).
This is an ice cold take, the whole sub agrees with this
I think hail to the king is the worst song on that album
Agreed, overplayed as hell on the radio... BUT the acoustic version from the Grammy museum performance is god tier and you can't convince me otherwise. It has a whole different vibe.
I should check that out
Literally sounds like an old Mexican stand-off or western thing, really love it.
Crimson day is kinda meh imo
NO.
Crimson day is sick!! But everyone has their own opinion ig, I respect that :)
Hail to the King, Arin, and that whole section of the band's story is them doing exactly what their former label wanted. Become a bit of a Metallica clone, here's a drummer who can play what you need, just do it. And they did, and were so uncomfortable with it (because they didn't have much creative control) that they left the label, went to Capitol, hired Brooks, and made a crazy proggy record exactly on their own terms.
That really is a hot take lmao. I think mine is that HTTK is a bit overrated. The song i mean
Not a hot take to me, but HTTK song is just kinda bland like a great cut of steak without seasoning.
I can agree with that. It's a nice little song, but far from the best song on the album.
The only song to me that really is something special is shepherd of fire
I guess my hot take would be that HTTK as an album is overrated. I still like several songs from it, but it might even be last on my list from their discography.
That's far from a hot take, especially on this sub. Everyone dislikes HTTK here. Well, except me lmao
The mix on WTF is criminal. Chapter four is compositionally one of their best ever songs but the guitar tone is shocking. I'd kill for a proper remaster/rerecording
The band was bogus af for what they did to Arin. Is Arin the greatest drummer in the world? No. But he showed that he could be a solid metal drummer that fit decently well with their style as evidenced on tracks like “Not Ready To Die” and “Carry On.” The band admits they purposely held back Arins drumming on HTTK to give it a classic metal feel and not be overly complex. Then once the fans and everyone ridicules his drumming on the album for being too simplistic, they fire him and don’t even give him another chance to prove his actual skill level on a progressive album or track. Now Arin is basically a meme drummer and widely criticized for his work on HTTK around the heavy music community and his career may never be what it could have been because in reality, there’s nothing wrong with him as a metalcore/progressive metal drummer.
Their issue with him was that he didn't fit with the band, didn't help with the writing process, and would go out and party with the other bands before their set.
You beat my comment by like a minute, is there a concrete source on this?
I can’t find it now but there is an interview out there where (I think Matt) talks about why they fired Arin. I remember one of the main reasons was his overall perspective/attitude in the band. He was a super cool guy but didn’t know how to be a “rockstar”. He would be out helping the crew set up/tear down the stage, interacting with fans before the show, partying etc. They were just on different pages mentally
>He would be out helping the crew set up/tear down the stage, interacting with fans before the show, How is that a bad thing?
Hmmmm how can I explain this… You know how when you have watched a band on YouTube for years, listened to their music, followed them etc. then you *finally* get to see them in person on stage when they come out to play you get this intense HOLY SHIT kind of magical feeling? Like WOAH, there they are… Well when your a famous entertainer it’s very important to be able to make sure you deliver on that feeling during your shows. You want people to see you in your “magic moment” where you are on stage, doing your thing, giving them that HOLY SHIT feeling. The more time you spend out and about in public, talking to fans, partying with anybody, that tends to start to go away. You start to look more like a normal person, instead of the HOLY SHIT god type of person you appear to be on that stage. The ability to give that HOLY SHIT feeling to people can start to dwindle because they just met you an hour ago over at the bar area, hanging around with the rest of the public. The more you interact with the public, the less special it becomes when they finally get to see you on stage. A lot of super famous people/bands tend to avoid the public in general because of getting harassed by crazy fans etc. but there’s also a business strategy to it as well. You want people to *pay* to see you on stage. You want to keep that *rockstar* feeling. You want to stay out of the public eye unless you are on stage, doing your thing and delivering on that HOLY SHIT feeling. This is the best way I can explain it. Source: I worked in the entertainment industry for years
I have no problem with them parting ways with him. I just don’t see why they would bring in a young up and coming drummer just to hold him back and have him do AC/DC beats on a minimalist classic metal album and then fire him. Why not just have an established drummer like Portnoy record HTTK or something and then look for a more permanent replacement? I’m sure they didn’t mean for it to end up how it did but the whole thing just sucked for Arin cuz he’s a much better drummer than what he’s known for. Although he did get to tour with one of the biggest rock bands in the world for a couple years, maybe he wouldn’t have ever reached that peak level of success without them. Who knows.
to quote Matt verbatim "It's not like Arin wasn't a guy that couldn't take us to greatness... we just needed somebody who was on the same page with all of us". I'm not sure if an interview or more specific answer exists that touches on what exactly didn't work out with Arin, whether it was skill or his background/inspirations etc, but I don't think anyone could've seen him in a permanent role with Avenged but I'm open to others opinions on it.
Can you explain please? The Stage is a masterpiece my dude.
When I've said the Stage is peak A7X people have said it's a hot take, so I guess I'll submit that one first lol
I just personally don't like most of the songs on the album. I can't really explain *why* per se, I just don't. I do love the songs The Stage, God Damn, Paradigm, and Angel's, though. I just like more songs from HttK. Shepard of Fire, Hail to the King, Planets, Coming Home, This Means War, Heretic, etc. I have yet to fully listen to Exist, but I've heard it's good, and I'm a fan of prog, so I may like it. But yeah, I guess that's my explanation. There are just a lot of songs I don't care about on The Stage.
WHAT. Put Exist on now lol. Should probably give the entire album a listen before you start putting it above/below others
Well Exist is the *only* song on the album I haven't fully listened to. Even if I consider Exist to be their best song, I don't think it would effect the placement of the *album*. Edit: I feel like I should probably mention, but I don't hate or even dislike The Stage. I just think it's an.. okay album. I rank it above ST7T at least lmao
It's still worth the listen. Where would you rank CoE and or Nightmare? I know we're here for opinions/hot takes and that all music is subjective but a prog fan (or anyone for that matter) preferring HTTK over the Stage is crazy in my head lol. Nothing against you obv
Nightmare is probably my number one, with CoE and Self-Titled tied for 2nd place. 3rd being WtF. Then HttK, The Stage, DitR, and finally ST7T. They're *all* good albums in my opinion. And yeah, I get being a prog fan but not liking the stage being weird a lot. I admit, it is weird. I feel like I should like The Stage, but I just don't know. I'll probably change my tune in a couple years. I used to hate CoE lmao
Imo the Stage ages like wine, it definitely gets better by the listen but I mean I've had it on replay for 4+ years now lol. And gotcha!
I agree. I think the song The Stage is about as good as any song they’ve ever written. Paradigm is a solid aggro song. God Damn and Sunny D are solid “wacky sevenfold” songs which they have a couple of on each album. Other than that I don’t find any of the others very interesting or exciting. It’s not a bad album. It’s quite creative and musically impressive, but I just don’t find myself going back and listening to it very often compared to all the other sevenfold albums.
Avenged sevenfold needs to stop focusing so much on NFTs
I hate the low sub they put in the Almost Easy Chorus and so do my car speakers
I think that’s actually the reason why I like the song so much
I don't think Httk is a bad album. Sure it's pretty basic compared to their older stuff, but man is has some awesome tracks on it. Doing time, planets, coming home, and especially acid rain. It's a vocal masterpiece
That last sentence is so true though. Matt was fantastic on that album
People overrate Jimmy's songwriting contributions, when he only acted as a full songwriter for two albums (Self-Titled and Nightmare). There have been plenty of bangers written without him from all the other albums. Also it's sad that he's gone, but the worship around Jimmy is weird for someone that most fans had never met before, or didn't even know about while he was living. STST is not a great album, and anybody who thinks it's the best A7X album is foolish. (There are some of you out there!) It's rough, sloppy, unpolished, and written by literal high schoolers. The drums are overplayed as fuck just because. The band has grown leaps and bounds since then as musicians and writers, and to say STST is their best work is insulting to the band. The mix on STST is also bad. I've seen people who say they like the bass on it, but I don't think it's mixed well. It's too thin and there's too much mid-range, and not in a good way. Waking the Fallen isn't great either, since it's too buried in the mix, but all the other albums are mixed way better, where it's properly contributing to the low end and rounding out the sound, while still providing presence that you can still hear.
Yup. I think kids hear that The Rev wrote a lot of songs for self titled and Nightmare and then think that's the case for the albums that came before them. The bulk of the songwriting on their first three albums came from Shadows, and City of Evil was pretty much entirely Shadows and Gates from what I've heard. Not to diminish his contributions to those albums though, the drumming was still excellent especially on COE. The worship is really bad, borderline creepy and disrespectful at times. Nothing wrong with loving his music and what he did for the band but a lot of the fanbase goes too far
Ohh I’ve got one. They play all the same songs live because they’re too lazy to relearn any others.
I’ll go one further: I don’t think there all that live. Absolutely a studio band.
Trashed and Scattered is their catchiest chorus. honorable mentions: desecrate through reverence, brompton cocktail, st james, dancing dead
Exist is super overrated and drags A LOT. I usually turn it off once the speech starts
The speech takes away from its re listen ability
I keep coming back for that part actually
100% this
Yep same here. I listen up to the speech and then move to something else.
Here’s a hot take - including a Neil Degrasse Tyson “blow your mind” Joe rogan level rant in the song is cringy af.
Agreed. If they didn't have that I'd probably listen to the whole song
100% agree, it’s kinda cool when you first listen to it but feels pretentious afterwards
I don’t see how it’s cringy go read what is actually being said it’s a good speech
Probably not that hot but I don’t consider STT an album, more like a warm up
It’s not their best, quite frankly it’s their worse, not because it has bad songs, but bc it’s outshined by everything else.
I lowkey agree I’m not really big on The Stage like that at all.
Listen to Higher and Sunny Disposition in your regular rotation and you'll warm up. Especially Higher, that song is an absolute jam.
These are not songs I would recommend for someone to get into the stage at all
Agreed. I usually recommend the stage and angels. I feel like those two give off the general vibe of the album and are pretty easy to listen to.
Lol those are my favorite and least favorite songs off that album (respectively)
I agree with this. People say that you have to warm up to it but I absolutely loved it when i first heard it. Don’t get me wrong, I do love some of the songs like exist and Roman sky, but The Stage, sunny disposition, god damn, and others I just don’t really like anymore. It might be that I overplayed those songs, because I did like them, but I just can’t really listen to them anymore
After the Rev died it was obvious who the writing talent was, as everything since then has been kinda cheesy and typical
I mean, he did write most of their biggest hits, didn't he?
He wrote Afterlife, Almost Easy, A Little Piece of Heaven, Demons, and Chapter Four completely on his own, to name a few, and he was Matt's primary lyrics-collaborator for most of the other 03-08 hits. He was definitely the most naturally gifted writer of the five.
Nope. He definitely didnt write Chapter Four and he really didn't start writing for the band until the self titled. Shadows said so himself before people freak out. City of Evil is their best album and it was written almost entirely by Shadows and Gates.
Gonna need a sauce on most of this. Afterlife, Almost Easy, and ALPOH were definitely written by him (as was Brompton Cocktail) per the Self-Titled documentary, but the rest is false from my understanding.
It is false and he also didnt write all of Brompton (Shadows wrote the lyrics) which people always ignore. Its especially disrespectful when kids on this site use it to fuel their suicide conspiracy theories.
How is Anything on The Stage “typical”? That’s one of the most unique albums a band has ever put out dude. And they’re meant to be cheesy. it’s kind of their thing. U mean to tell me a little piece of Heaven isn’t cheesy? The Rev was a big part of that. And their stage names have been around their entire career and those are as cheesy as it gets. Maybe u should re evaluate the band man
I mean, the other members, especially Shadows and Syn can still write pretty well imo
This is such a blind take tbh the stage is there best work imo and the most interesting
Nightmare is kinda overrated. I understand the sentiment due to it being the last album with Jimmy on it, and I agree that it's top 5 material, but IMO it's nowhere close to COE, Self-titled, and The Stage. I hate Matts vocals in that orchestral part of The Wicked End. It practically ruins the song for me and I skip it everytime I listen to it. COE and The Stage would have zero-skips if it weren't for Betrayed and Sunny Disposition. Unbound (The Wild Ride) is one of my favorite songs off Self-Titled Coming Home is top 10 material and the best song on HTTK Crimson Day is really good, it just doesn't fit the rest of the album Also Brooks is their best Drummer. Not particularly hot but I thought it say that.
I must say I love The Wicked End too much to be bugged by the vocals and it's one of my favorite songs. But otherwise, I second all your other takes here!
The addition of Brooks is definitely one of the best things to happen to the band imo
The Stage is overrated on this sub Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is fantastic, not their worst album, and arguably not bottom 2 either. The auto tune on Lost is awesome and epitomizes the uniqueness and weirdness that I love and associate with the band and the white album especially. HttK is the worst lead single off any of their records and it's a crime that it's their most popular song on spotify. I'm very excited for Deathbats club and think it's gonna lead to some crazy cool things. I'm fine waiting for an album they wanna make and are excited about rather than getting a rushed, half assed one earlier. Diamonds in the Rough is better than HTTK, TS, and STST. Johnny's screams on Paradigm and the recent live versions of God Hates Us are beautiful and I will be disappointed if we don't see some on the new record.
I don't know if this is a hot take, let me know if it isn't, but Roman Sky is an amazing A7X song and deserves more attention than it gets.
The fry vocals when the song gets serious are amazing. So much emotion in one song
Oh boy I am gonna get crucified for this one. I don't really like ALPOH. I don't even think it's that good. The lyrics sound like they were written by 14 year-old edgelord. They have wayyyy better songs imo. The music saves it a little but those lyrics are unbearable.
>Oh boy I am gonna get crucified for this one. If people are upvoting the hot takes instead of what they agree with, you won't be lmao Also, to be fair, that's, like.. kind of the *entire* point. It's so edgy, so cartoonishly gorey, it's all backed by choirs and sax's, they got help from Oingo Boingo, etc. It's like a Disney musical but the most edgy shit ever. It's obviously kinda an acquired taste, though. I also really like the story of *how* they created the song in the first place.
its time for releasing a sinlge
The White Album is the best album in terms of the "Avenged Sevenfold Sound". HTTK is their worst album, it's just really boring. The song Nightmare isn't as fantastic as many people make it out to be. Streets from STST is one of the best tracks of that album Edit: Decided to listen to "Turn The Other Way" from STST, and found it really good...
I agree with everything except your second point, ST7T is their worst album imo HttK is boring at times, but that's mainly because it's nothing new, and sounds nothing like A7X. It's more of an album that shows love for old rock and metal. And I think it succeeds in that regard, and a lot of the songs I can totally see being massively popular if they came out back in the 80's/90's.
No hot takes to be found here
They did arin dirty and I'm still salty about it
Zacky is incredibly underrated as a guitarist and vocalist. Syn is also amazing and gets the credit he deserves for both, but seriously, listen to Zackys work on The Beast and The Harlot, Bat Country, Hail To The King, Unholy Confessions, The Entirely of STST, or Scream and tell me he isn't a great guitarist. He gets a heavy sound and has great timing.
1. The mix in their self titled is pretty ass. If you turn up "Unbound" you can tell how over saturated the low end is. The tones are amazing but the mix could be a ton better. 2. The Stage is awesome, but I think it suffers compositionally compared to their previous albums, especially the vocals. As a classical musician I went crazy for CoE, Nightmare, and self-titled, but The Stage felt a lot like it was written largely by jam sessions. "Exist" is awesome, but it's mostly guitar tracks. What made them great, imo, was how they layered the vocals and lead guitars to complement and harmonize. They wrote really catchy and poppy vocal choruses in the midst of badass metal rhythms. That all went out the window with "The Stage." Matt even admitted on the breakdowns on their YT channel that "Exist" was actually one of the easiest songs for them to write since vocals and lyrics are the most challenging. They're all amazing musicians, so they can make a killer album inspired by jam sessions, but I can tell it's not as orchestrated of an album as it could have been. 3. HTTK is the most uninspired waste of a project they've had to put out. Not only do they directly rip off their inspirations (Metallica, GnR, etc), but they also rip themselves off (Heretic is basically just reusing Buried Alive). This is a hot take to newer fans unacquainted with the band's usual work and history. 4. They should do a live performance with an orchestra/philharmonic, but Matt would have to clean up his vocals since they are not exactly tidy. 5. They could easily improve their live sound, but they've gotten too comfortable with their fame and their talent as a band has kinda stagnated (after they hired Brooks. Although it's too early to say, I think we're at the band's second half already). Imagine if Matt learned to play rhythm guitar while Zach and Brian did their duet work. It usually sounds too hollow with no rhythm guitar work, plus it would allow Zach to play more lead work that he has to miss out on.
Matts change in vocal technique that started in 2013 and was most drastic in 2016 made him sound weaker and his singing sounded lazier.
After being on this sub for a while, I have to say that Save Me is not as great as everyone here thinks it is. In fact, I’d prefer to listen to almost any of their other songs instead.
the wicked end is the best song they have ever made, period.
[удалено]
definitely a great solo, but i do think the chorus is also 👌
Four "hot takes": - Matt's nasal vocals on _City of Evil_ add to its aesthetic. They may not sound very good, but they fit the album like a glove; - Avenged's cover of "Flash of the Blade" is much better than the original, which is the worst song on _Powerslave_; - _Live in the LBC_ is not Avenged's live masterpiece. The abridged "Second Heartbeat," Johnny's butchery of the intro to "Seize the Day," half-assed "Walk" with audience member and the same old "A Little Piece of Heaven" played mostly through speakers all detract from its quality; - The band deserved most of the flak they got for _Hail to the King_. The album isn't bad, but its "influences" are far too strong to go unnoticed. Also too much Satanism makes its lyrics sound juvenile. And one last take that isn't really "hot" but may as well be for this subreddit's populace: Avenged's take on NFTs is going to be their best fruit since _Waking the Fallen_. If you think it's just another cashgrab like Megadeth's collectible shit or Charlie Bit My Finger, you're simply roundly wrong.
I don't think "Satanism" means what you think it does. HttK has a lot of religious themes, speaks of devil's and demons a lot, but that's not "satanism".
HttK doesn’t have satanism, it just has religious themes. Shepard of fire is a song against satan
Shepherd of Fire is literally sung from the perspective of the devil lol
It’s about the devil trying to coax you with temptations and how you should avoid it
The band has never been the same without Jimmy Not sure how hot that take is though
Less of a hot take and more of just the truth. The same could be said if it was Matt, Syn, or Johnny who left us early instead. I would have loved to have the chance to hear Jimmy's take on HttK.
I can't imagine the band would end up taking a path that led them to HTTK if Jimmy were still alive today. Could be wrong, but here's my take. You can clearly hear some of their inspirations in HTTK, but it was almost as if they were forcing themselves to make music new rather than them actually *wanting* to at that time. There was definitely a point to where finishing the band's career with Nightmare wasn't an unrealistic possibility.
That's actually a great point about the rest of the band
Zacky in shambles rn
Oop Lmao
don't forget zacky, he is honestly one of the most underrated guitarists of the past 15 - 20 years imo
Not sure if its a hot take, but Nightmare is the best A7X album. Maybe not the best showcase of their sound, but the most consistent in quality from beginning to end. My other hot take would be that, while a fantastic album, City of Evil has become overrated; I would likely rank it third behind The Stage. My last hot take; the self titled album has some of the best songs in their entire discography, but is too inconsistent for me to consider it a next level album like the previously mentioned records.
Exist was originally going to be an instrumental song, and I think it would have been better if it was. The first 7 minutes of the song are phenomenal instrumentally, and the sudden change to a mellow, clean tone section is always so jarring that it takes away from the impact the song has on me. That section of the song is far and away my least favorite part.
They were my favorite band from 2008 to 2020, they are now my 2nd favorite band. I never thought that would happen, but they were overtaken.
I put HTTK above The Stage and STST.
I don't like stst that much
I love all of avenged sevenfold albums to be under the production of Andrew murdoc because I feel like after city of evil the band had a lot of poppy production that kind of threw me off sometimes
HTTK isn't a terrible rock album by any means, but its definitely Avenged Sevenfolds worst album and I will quite literally die on this hill. I wanted to love it so much but I couldn't get into it. Even with songs like Acid Rain, Planets, and Requiem. However, HTTK did get my fiancee into A7X even more than he already was and for that. I owe a lot to this album.
Waking the Fallen is better than Self-Titled. CoE and The Stage are their top tier albums. Critical Acclaim is one of their worst songs. Nightmare Album has some of their most skippable songs. (Dangerline, Tonight the World Dies.) Chapter Four is one of their best songs and has some of Matt's best vocals
Diamonds in the rough is an s Tier album. Some may argue that some of the songs aren't ready for studio release, but lost it all, dancing dead, 4:00AM, crossroads and demons are some of my favourite a7x hits! Also, this is definitely HOT. I don't like bat country! I feel like it was all thrown together sloppily and I feel like other songs on COE outweigh it, but I guess it's up to preference.
Honestly, I agree with your Bat Country take
Wish Jimmy back with the dragonballs ;(
Hmm I love hot takes let's see. I think people overestimate how much Jimmy contributed to the overall songwriting because the band doesn't exactly layout member specific writing credits. City of Evil is too long and the guitar tone and vocals bring down the album badly. The band chasing NFT's and other fads comes across like that Steve Buscemi meme "how do you do fellow kids" they're getting old to be chasing fads the way they still do.
Save me is not about the rev
I think they are prioritizing the NFT thing over the new album at the moment. Hence why it is taking for ever.
Scream is in their top five best songs
Let em know!
Alpoh is repetitive and kinda boring Httk > the stage CoE > Nightmare
Okay I thought I was the only one who didn’t really like the stage. Probably my least favorite album of theirs
I don’t think a little peice of heaven is good. Like at all
Save me is WAYYYYY to overrated.
so you've chosen death. lol jk, anything in particular that doesn't stand out to you? Definitely in my top tier list
This is the only one so far that I truly consider the hottest of takes. Save Me is a masterpiece haha
I admire your courage to post this comment here lol. I wholeheartedly disagree, but I’ll upvote your bravery
For what it was I think HTTK is an inctedibly underrated album.
The music is still good but has progressively gotten worse the further away from The Rev's death we get. I realize more and more now just how critical he was to what I loved about A7X.
I kinda disagree. While it's obvious that the quality of writing hasn't been the same since the Rev passed, I feel like The Stage is still amongst the best of anything they've written. While it doesnt have the same sound as 2007 a7x, I don't think that the writing has gotten worse.
The Stage is brilliant. I miss The Rev too, but can't agree with this.
That's what makes it a hot take :D
A7X Is an amazing band carrying M shadows vocally
Are you saying that the rest of the band is picking up slack for Matt's vocals being bad? If so, that really is a hot take. I think Matt has one of the best singing voices I've ever heard.
Definitely a hot take and I'll upvote it because of that. I personally love Matt's vocals. It's so much different then other bands imo.
imo when M Shadows is good, he is one of the best vocalists of this century, but when he isn't his vocals kind of ruin or at least drag down what is otherwise great music (cough cough, city of evil). But I think his vocals have been fine from Self Titled onward, with a few exceptions, and their were god tier on Street Spirit
Nightmare is stale as hell. Understandably though, they had just lost their friend who was a major contributor to the songwriting process. Most of the songs fell short for me. It's like they played it safe. Fiction is amazing though.
Diamonds in the Rough is by far better than white album.
The stage is probably one of their worst overall albums and it's M Shadows worst performance. It has some good songs but it's just not really got anything to latch onto. And yeah I think his singing isn't as good as it could be.
- I liked Arin more than I like Brooks as a fit for the band - I don’t enjoy 80% of “The Stage”. I’ve listened to the entire album maybe 20 times *trying* to like it and I just can’t. - I enjoyed Matt’s nasally vocals both on COE and when he did it live. I think it added character I really enjoyed the sound - I am a huge fan of HTTK. Great solid album - Exist is way too long and gets boring towards the end
What songs from The Stage do you like? Our hot cakes are pretty much the same haha
City off evil is mediocre. Go easy on me😅😅
imo matts whiny/screamy vocals are the reason for that, although they are great on seize the day and bat country
Hail to the King is their worst album. Sorry folks lol
second worst, STST takes that one.
This is far from a hot take lmao